Hey all! It's been awhile hasn't it? Yea well I guess I just lost the will to write so I put it off for a couple months. Happens to everyone so don't be to harsh on me. Anyways enjoy. Oh and I don't own Naruto.


Four Years Later

Naruto- Age 9

Sasori had been pleased to find that Naruto had indeed been a useful investment of his time. While at first he had just popped in every once in awhile to train the boy as a spy, he soon learned about Naruto's identity as holder of the Kyuubi. After that piece of information had been provided to him, Sasori had taken to training Naruto very often. To have a jinchuuriki at your disposal was an extreme and deadly advantage. However there was the obstacle of keeping them knowing each other a secret. So Naruto had been forbidden from displaying his training or even speaking of the subject.

The two would have scheduled meetings at a secluded place, away from Konoha. These would take place at night and were set by an interval known only to the two. Naruto had been instructed to always take a route that would lose anybody from following him. Sasori knew that the boy would not be able to lose any ninja that followed him, but that was why Sasori would not show himself unless he was sure there wasn't a stalker.

Soon however, that had proven to be unnecessary as Sasori had taught the boy stealth and the ability to sense chakra signatures. That was not his main focus for Naruto though. Sasori had started the training Naruto on the beautiful and long living art of puppetry.

The first thing that Sasori had noticed was that the boy was a genius when it came to thinking on the spur of the moment and in abstract terms. He had good instincts, that was a no brainer, but when Naruto tried to think over things rather than relying on those instincts, it put him at a disadvantage. It amazed Sasori that a person could be a genius in instincts but a dunce in rational thinking.

Another flaw that Sasori found was that the boy had horrendous chakra control. Thankfully the weakness had been caught early on, allowing it to be fixed with exercises like tree walking and water walking. Sasori shuddered at the thought of how bad Naruto's chakra control would have been later on, when his reserves were larger and chakra coils were more developed. Luckily if he kept on improving the control as he grew, then it would not worsen.

After Naruto's control had been deemed sufficient, the lesson of chakra strings came. It had not been easy to learn, but the jinchuuriki had stayed determined and worked a great many hours to get the technique down. While currently the number of fully functioning puppets Naruto could control with both hands was two, he would soon be able to increase that number.

Then the lessons on actually using a puppet had arrived and they had gone surprisingly very well. Naruto could take a technique, perfect it, then push it to new levels. His ability had grown so rapidly that in just a few years Naruto was skillful enough to give a few of Suna's puppeteers a run for their money. And that was an amazing achievement.

Finally Sasori had taught Naruto how to create his own puppets, with the most efficiency and lethal effectiveness. And to do that, Naruto had to know how to find and mix poisons, and to become proficient with the use of weapons. He also needed to always make his puppet's attacks unexpected, else the enemy could render it useless. When creating puppets, Sasori urged his pupil to find his own style of puppets making.

Other than those teachings, Naruto had learned very little from Sasori. Puppetry had been the main focus, since Sasori had figured that Naruto could learn everything else at the Academy.

Sasori had taught Naruto all that he could about puppetry in four years and now that time was up. Since the Academy would start in just a few weeks, Naruto would have to move back to Konoha. And as good of a ninja Sasori was, even he could not manage to sneak into such a powerful village. Although Sasori would still remain as his sensei, he would not take a part of his training for a while.


Naruto stood before the Hokage with an unblinking gaze. It had been over a year and a half since they had last seen each other. The Sandaime too gazed at the boy, judging his appearance to see how much had changed in the boy. Soon they both cracked a smile and Naruto jumped over the desk, startling the Sandaime with a hug, screaming jiji as he did so.

The Hokage looked at Naruto with an amused smiled and awkwardly patted his head. "My Naruto-kun, you sure have grown quite a bit since I've seen you last. Tell me are you ready to finally come back to Konoha and begin the academy?"

Of course the Sandaime already knew the answer was yes, since the boy had already moved all of his things into a new apartment, suspiciously located next to Ichikiraku's Ramen Bar right down the street.

Naruto quickly jumped out of the Hokage's lap, and leaped back over the desk to stand on one of the chairs. He quickly took a pose, eerily resembling Jiraiya, and shouted a reply, "You bet Jiji! I'm gonna be out of there in no time and then I'll be one step closer to taking that hat away from you."

At that Hiruzen chuckled at the antics of the boy. "Oh I'm sure you will my boy, but first you have to make it through the academy. Do not think that it will be just a walk in the park. Remember to study and work as hard as you possibly can. Especially since many of your peers will have already received training from their clan." As he said this, the Hokage studied Naruto's face closely to gauge his reaction to the latter statement and to his surprise Naruto started laughing.

Naruto jumped down from his chair and immediately became serious, something that made the Sandaime anxious. He spoke in a sober tone, "Jiji I have to tell you something about these past few years. I have received training from a nukenin named Sasori of the Red Sands in the art of puppetry," The Sandaime stood up swiftly and placed his hands on the desk, with widened eyes. "And he plans to use me as a spy in Konoha."

The Sandaime took a moment to stare incredulously at the boy before he spoke, "Obviously you do not plan to actually go through with that as you have just revealed it to me, but that does not guarantee that i can fully trust you at the moment. If you would allow one of my ninja to sift through your memories, it would abolish any suspicion of you."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "Of course, I totally understand even though having someone go through my head is kinda freaky, you know? Anyways if I am proven not guilty I would be happy to give the knowledge to Konoha. It would get rid of an advantage that Suna-nin had over us."

The Sandaime slowly sat down again, after his nerves had calmed. "Yes what you said is true and is very thoughtful of you Naruto. I am glad to see that you are contributing to the greater good of Konoha." He looked through a couple files on his desk and handed Naruto a small piece of paper as he spoke, "Now I need you to go to this address at around 6 o'clock tonight. Just tell the person at the desk that the Hokage sent you for a check-up and you will be directed where to go."

"Alright old man, I'm not gonna enjoy this, but at least it will get you to trust me right?" The Sandaime nodded causing Naruto to give a bright smile, "And can I ask you to keep everything about my relationship with Sasori a secret? He still thinks that I will be his spy and I would like to keep it that way so in the future I might learn more from him."

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes, "Naruto-kun that is a very dangerous thing to do. The more contact that you have with this man the bigger the possibility that he will find out about all of this and kill you."

"I know jiji, but I want to get as much information from him on puppetry as possible. I know that he hasn't shown me everything he could on the subject."

The Sandaime gave a long sigh, "Very well I will do as you have asked and allow you to remain as his spy."

With that Naruto gave another smile, "OK now give me all the details on what I need to do to get in the Academy, jiji."


A Few Weeks Later

Naruto sat in the back row of the Academy classroom, between the two other students that he been assigned to sit with. Both had not even said a word to him. Since he had always been quite the talkative guy, it always unnerved him to stay in such a silence. Naruto quickly took a glance to his left where the girl was sitting. She had the most peculiar eyes, with no pupil and entirely white. He did not know her name and he could tell that she was not in a position to even try to introduce herself.

To put it simply, she looked like she was about to piss her pants from fright. The girl's was darting her eyes back and forth, as if she expected an enemy to attack her at any moment. She seemed to be trying to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible by curling up into a ball, and Naruto thought that if she was given even one little surprise that she might faint. It made him wonder what kind of person expected such a fragile girl to become a ninja. Overall Naruto judged that the girl would not be much of a threat.

Naruto took a peek to his right at the boy wearing a high collared coat and sunglasses. He could tell that this boy was much more suited the lifestyle of a ninja. Sunglasses, as he referred to him since he did not know his name, was quiet and inconspicuous. He did not try to stand out in a crowd unlike some of the other students in the class, such as a braggart by the name of Inuzuka Kiba or Yamanaka Ino. And while Naruto was normally a loud person, he never bragged about his abilities or achievements. Well unless of course it was about becoming the Hokage, but that was a goal that had become personal.

Naruto turned back to stare at the sensei of the classroom, Umino Iruka, who had droned on and on about curriculum of the following years and what it was to be a ninja. It was all an extremely boring lecture that he had all but tuned out after the first couple of sentences. He had preferred to gauge the potential of the other would be ninja in the classroom. So far he had found maybe 20 of the total 34 students in the class to actually become successful ninja. Of course looks could be deceiving and Naruto had not even seen the others in action yet, so he could not make and final assumptions.

Suddenly Naruto looked down to his arm and flicked a bug off the sleeve. He had not thought anything of it until that bug flew over to Sunglasses' open hand. Sunglasses stared at the bug for a little while and then turned to Naruto. "You have had training in the use of chakra before."

Naruto fully turned his body to stare at Sunglasses. 'Okay, Sunglasses is even better than I thought he was.' He answered the statement slowly, "Yea I have... How do you know that?"

Sunglasses gave a curt nod and smiled slightly. "My clan specializes in the use of a species of insect known as the Destruction Bug. The Destruction Bug feeds on chakra. May I inquire on your experience in chakra use?"

Naruto nodded in understanding at the explanation that Sunglasses gave. He glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. While he did not mind telling of his abilities, he did not want it be announced to the whole class. "I'm a puppeteer. I use a technique called chakra strings to control puppets from a distance. I would show you a bit but I'd rather not have the whole class know. Oh yea by the way I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

Sunglasses nodded with what looked like contentment, but Naruto wasn't too sure, and turned to face Iruka once more. "I am Aburame Shino. It is nice to meet you, Uzumaki-san."

'Man this kid is weird' Naruto muttered a yea in reply and then he too looked back at the sensei.

"Um... N-Naruto-san I am H-Hyuuga Hinata." Naruto looked over to the girl from earlier to see that she was trembling and looked to be having a battle within herself. "I-I have a b-bloodline in my eyes t-that has penetrating vision in a f-field of 360 degrees."

'Hmmm, I was wrong about her. She may be a push-over in her personality but the abilities of her bloodline override that weakness.'

Naruto gave Hinata a bright smile, making her blush slightly. He could tell that she had much difficulty in mustering up the courage to talk to him. "It's nice to meet ya, Hinata! That is a pretty cool bloodline. I'm actually pretty jealous of you, cause it would be awesome to be able to see through things."

Hinata blushed a bit more and seemed to take a look of relief on her face. She spoke with a little less timidness, "Y-yes it is useful to have." Then as a gloomy afterthought she said, "B-but my father says t-that I am n-not very good at it and t-that even my y-younger sister is b-better."

Hinata looked down at her desk, and if you looked hard enough you could see tears rolling down her cheeks.

Naruto watched the girl start to cry and he began to panic. If people saw that Hinata started to cry while talking to him, then they would have bad impressions about him. He quickly placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke with what he thought was a soothing voice. "Hey don't cry, cheer up. If your not very good at it right now, then just work hard and practice, so you can improve."

Hinata nodded slightly at his words and rubbed at her eyes to get rid of the tears. "I d-do work hard, b-but it's n-not enough for him."

"Well then if he knows that your trying the best you can and still doubts you, then you shouldn't care what he thinks. He's a jerk and you don't deserve to be treated that way."

She nodded again and tried to smile unsuccessfully.

"Anyways since you and Sunglasses over here are the only two people that I know right now, how about we eat lunch together today?" Naruto looked to Shino, who looked confused by the nickname Naruto gave him. "That cool with you Sunglasses?"

Both just nodded slowly without saying a word.


I think that is enough for one chapter, don'tcha think? Oh and do any of you understand how annoying it is to write dialogue for Hinata? I can't describe how tiring it got and I only wrote a couple sentences for her! Anyways hope you guys liked the read!